County champions Strokestown added
to their trophy haul on Saturday evening last
when they defeated a galant Castlerea St. Kevins
team in the 2002 All County League Final. In the
process, they also collected two O’Rourke
Cup points.
Strokestown opened the scoring after five
minutes with a pointed free from Luke Dolan and
this was followed by a Seamus Henghan goal after
an excellent passage of play from Castlerea.
Giles McDonagh added a point from a free
for Castlerea to stretch the lead to three
points. A well worked Strokestown move was
finished to the net by Shane Flaherty and this
was followed by points from Conor Silke and Luke
Dolan to give Strokestown a two point advantage.
However a pointed free from David Scahill and an
excellent effort from Barry O’Regan
leveled matters at half-time, 1-3 each.
Castlerea started the second-half well and
were quickly in front with a Giles McDonagh free
and the same player thought he had stretched the
lead further when he pointed from play from near
the sideline only to have it ruled out for a
square infringement.
Strokestown then scored three unanswered
points - two from Luke Dolan and one from John
Rogers to edge two points ahead but Castlerea
bit back with points from play by Pat Lavin (2),
Barry O’Regan and Giles McDonagh.
Strokestown’s experience stood to
them and they finished with points from Shane
Flaherty, Kevin Dolan and Luke Dolan to win by
the narrowest of margins. Castlerea’s Ken
Duggan was unlucky to see the last kick of the
game come back off the upright to deny them a
share of the O’Rourke Cup points and send
the All County League Final to extra-time.
Strokestown’s Morgan Beirne and
Castlerea’ Nigel Dineen were not avilable
to their clubs because of their involvement in
Sunday’s FBD final. Strokestown fielded
most of the championship win-ning team and with
this victory they will now be confident of
adding the O’Rourke Cup to their
collection for 2002.
Castlerea who fielded without a number of
regulars can feel satisfied with their overall
performance and on the day were unlucky not to
have taken something from the game.
STROKESTOWN: D. Hanly, A
Cassidy, N. Owens, D. Cassidy, K. Bosquette, D.
Donlon, E. Collins, D. Hagan, L. Shiel, S.
Flaherty (1-1), R. Shiels, J. Rogers (0-1), C.
Silke (0-1), K. Dolan (0-1), L. Dolan (0-5).
Subs. R Owens for D Hagan, D Parker for C
Silke.
CASTLEREA: S. Ryan, D.
Lyons, K. Duggan, P. Farrelly, P. Duignan, G.
Tiernan, N. Curran, D. Scahill (0-1) M.
Finneran, D. Mahoney, P. Lavin (0-2), S.
Heneghan (1-0), G. McDonagh (0-3), B.
O’Regan (0-2). R. Curran. Sub. M. Rafferty
for R. Curran.
Referee: A. Flaherty.